The year 2012 started with Laura Dekker, a sixteen year old Dutch/German/New Zealander becoming the youngest person to circumnavigate the globe single-handed in a boat. (Read: ‘The Lure of Going on A Limb’) That was on the 21st of January. The year ended with a 23 years old girl in Delhi being gang-raped in a bus (on the evening of 16 Dec); which finally resulted in her death (13 agonising days later). A […]

One of the media needs to be congratulated for naming her ‘Nirbhaya’ (Fearless). The epithet not just describes her spirit but also what we want women to be in India. While writing in his famous poem (that he wrote in 1910), ‘Where the Mind is Without Fear’ (nirbhaya), Rabindra Nath Tagore, wanted his country, India, to awaken “in that heaven of freedom”. A hundred and two years later, India has not awoken in […]

Dear Friends, Christmas is always a welcome day,The coming amidst us of our Lord,At Midnight Mass we gather to pray:“Thank you, for being with us, O’ God” “Thank you for giving us great friends,Our loving family, near and dear ones,Thank you for giving us enough to meet ends,And yet have some for cakes and buns.” It is also time to pen a few words,About our life, family and home,We hope […]

The other day I was tempted to do a blog on the contribution of Bengalis to Hindi cinema and music. I would eventually do it; since there are too many stalwarts: Hrishikesh Mukherjee, Hemant Kumar, Pandit Ravi Shankar, Salil Chaodhary, Kishore Kumar etc, it will take me time to condense this into an average sized blog. Another name that comes to mind is that of Shakti Samanta; the maker (producer […]

Hungry and thirstyWandering in “the dreary desert sand of dead habit”He finally came across a poolDifferent from most Indian poolsIt had lucid waterHe could clearly see the baseIt was unlike other bottomless pits. The man was fascinatedHe longed to drink of itHave a dip in itAnd come out clean and quenchedAll sins forgiven and forgottenDarkness of past merging with future’s shineDespite living in the filth and mire of present. He removed his […]

Mughal-e-Azam (The Greatest of the Moghuls) was a film that starred Prithviraj Kapoor as Emperor Akbar, Duga Khote as the Queen, Dilip Kumar as the young prince Salim (later to become Emperor Jehangir) and Madhubala as Anarkali, a court dancer with whom Salim falls so much in love with that he wants to make her his wife, the future queen of India. She only has to reckon with two things: […]

Officers of all other branches in the Indian Navy can argue with me until cows come home (if at all they do) but I am convinced that there is no more thankless job on board a ship than being a SCO or Signal Communication Officer. Presumably, officers of all other specializations (ND, ie, Navigation and Direction; ASW, ie, Anti-Submarine Warfare, G, ie, Gunnery etc) would have done wonders in their own areas […]

My civilian friends would be thinking of the epithet ‘Awkward Sentry’ as well suited for a blundering, bumbling guard. Wait until I explain the term. I was the Ship’s Commander of our aircraft carrier Viraat. A carrier is a large ship, almost like a floating town. You can easily get lost on board in hundreds of compartments; this was especially true of Viraat, the old lady (as navy men fondly call […]

Why do we like old Hindi songs or as some call – Bhoole Bisre Geet? The first reason is because of nostalgia. Nostalgia is such a curious feeling; it lends enchantment to even those things that we nearly hated during their currency. For example, if you ask a middle aged man about his childhood and boyhood, he is bound to bring out nostalgic memories of his ‘school-days’. He would have […]

About me

I have done a long stint in the Indian Navy that lasted for nearly thirty seven years; I rose as far as my somewhat rebellious and irreverant nature allowed me to. On retirement, in Feb 2010, the first thing that occured to me, and those around me, was that I Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (you will find an article with this title in this blog) and hadn't lost all my noodles and hence thought of a blog titled 'This 'n That'. I later realised that every third blog is called 'This 'n That' and changed the name to 'Sunbyanyname'.
I detest treading the beaten track. This blog offers me to air 'another way' of looking at things. The idea is not just to entertain but also to bring about a change. Should you feel differently, you are free to leave your comments. You can leave comments even when you agree and want to share your own experience about the topic of the blog post.
Impudent or otherwise, I have never been insousciant and I am always concerned about the betterment of community, nation and the world. I hope the visitors of this blog would be able to discern it.